Endwalker was "meh" (for reasons other than technical issues)

[AceofRains]

Endwalker to me was the response to the excellence of Shadow Bringers. However the excellence of Shadow Bringers is made the the fact that we were taken outside of our normal world to tell a the story of another world. Returning to the source meant returning to the main story and finishing it off with what we learned in the First. I treat these expansions more like a singular pair rather than saying one was better than the other because the systems are more cohesive and fleshed out, like trusts, and alternative quest styles- as compared to the previous expansions.

I also want to respond to the idea that any of the Scions should have died. No. There’s no narrative compelling reason to do this. Rather you should realize that all of the Scions are fighting because of the respective people they have lost. Hauchefant for WoL, Papalymo for Lyse, Moenbryda for Urianger, Minfilia for Thancred, Louisoux for the Twins. Even Graha Tia first had to carry the weight of literally everyone perishing before he moved the Crystal Tower to the First. Those who died were either Scions or close enough to damn near be a Scion. So let’s not pretend like important human people haven’t been dying off, when even the Satrap of Radz-at-Han was swallowed whole. Yeah sure, we had some fake outs along the way, but have lost plenty of good people that killing the party members that are central to the story is dumb and pointless. Knowing that the party would survive the final battle because plot devices were in place, I still felt the gravity and emotion of losing them and really broke down when the twins made their sacrifice.

To address stealth quests. I actually like them especially for the solo experience. I almost wish they had more of it during earlier xpacs. I more liked the Thancred mission than the player ones. I really liked being low profile in Deus Ex so it felt cool to play with that thematic while controlling the appropriate Scion. Alternatively the In from the Cold quest felt a little too unguided with little capacity to actually be stealthy other than trying to avoid enemy cone of vision.

Again to drive it home, it’s not like one expac here is that much better than the other. Objectively the writing was just as good and simply continued the narrative, we got more, and I’m never going to complain about that. However, FFXIV has grown stale over the years for me. Being on board since 1.0, I’m so happy to see where it’s all come to, but I’m also jaded because for almost a decade I’ve known the pattern of fetch quest, MSQ, level all jobs, raid, ect, ect. With the end of MSQ what I’m looking for in the future is more content that shakes things up. Maybe a new Bozja type thing that allows the use of a subjob, or some kind of gimmick idk. Mostly I think it’s just me getting older and not leaning into gaming as much as I used too.

[Silver-Strider]

So let’s not pretend like important human people haven’t been dying off, when even the Satrap of Radz-at-Han was swallowed whole.

Ah yes, he was so important to the story. Standing on the sidelines while we spoke to Vytra. Truly an important character. Please, I don't even remember the dude's name since he was so unimportant narratively that it might as well have been a random civilian. He had no character other than being a public figure that Vytra acted thru and that was the extent of him. Zenos had more character than that dude did so to call him "important" is laughable.